In recent years, the 14-inch laptop has grown in popularity as it provides a larger display than 13-inch devices in a considerably smaller frame than 15-inch and larger laptops. The Razer Blade 14 and the Apple MacBook Pro 14 are two of the best.
The Blade 14 topped our list of best gaming laptops, with exceptional performance in a sleek body that no other gaming laptop can equal. At the same time, the MacBook Pro 14 has dominated the market because of its lightning-fast Apple M1 Pro and M1 Max CPUs, which also provide some of the finest battery life available. It ranks first on our list of the best 14-inch laptops. Which of these incredible 14-inch laptops is the best fit for you?
Razer Blade 14 vs. MacBook Pro 14: Specs
| Razer Blade 14 | Apple MacBook Pro 14 | |
| Dimensions | 12.59 inches x 8.66 inches x 0.66 inches | 12.31 inches x 8.71 inches x 0.61 inches |
| Weight | 3.92 pounds | 3.5 pounds |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX | Apple M1 Pro Apple M1 Max |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 | Integrated |
| RAM | 16GB | 16GB 32GB 64GB |
| Display | 14.0-inch Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) IPS 144Hz 14.0-inch QHD (2,560 x 1,440) IPS 165Hz | 14.2-inch 16:10 Liquid Retina XDR 3,024 x 1,964 |
| Storage | 1TB solid-state drive | 512GB SSD 1TB SSD 2TB SSD 4TB SSD 8TB SSD |
| Touch | Optional | No |
| Ports | 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 2 x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 1 x HDMI 2.1 3.5mm audio jack | 3x USB-C with Thunderbolt 4 HDMI 2.0 3.5mm audio jack SD card reader |
| Wireless | Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 | Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Webcam | 720p | 1080p |
| Operating system | Windows 10 Home | MacOS Monterey |
| Battery | 61.6 watt-hour | 70 watt-hour |
| Price | $1,800+ | $1,999+ |
| Rating | 4.5 out of 5 stars | 5 out of 5 stars |
Razer Blade 14 vs. MacBook Pro 14: Design
The Razer Blade 14 has the same minimalist, all-black appearance as the rest of the line, with clean lines and only a green snake emblem on the lid to add a pop of colour. Its design goal, in fact, maybe said to be to match the Apple MacBook’s understated grace. The MacBook Pro 14 looks a lot like the Blade 14 (or is it the other way around? ), with a similar basic style that avoids any bling. Both are gorgeous computers, and the only difference between them is colour preference.
Both laptops are also extremely well-built, with CNC machined aluminum chassis. There is no bending, flexing, or twisting in either laptop; they are among the best-built computers available. Another criterion that makes it difficult to choose between the two.
There is, however, an obvious distinction when it comes to the keyboard. Sure, the Blade 14 features 15 levels of per-key RGB illumination and a comfortable design with large keycaps and lots of spacing. The switches are also extremely good and are among the best you’ll find on a Windows laptop. The MacBook Pro 14 does, however, have Apple’s Magic Keyboard, which replaced the butterfly keyboard, which was a subject of much controversy on previous MacBooks. The Magic Keyboard doesn’t have a lot of travel, but its switches are exceedingly precise and have the proper bottoming action, making it the greatest laptop keyboard available.
Another highlight of the MacBook Pro 14 is the touchpad. Its big Force Touch haptic touchpad is responsive responds to clicks on every square millimeter of its smooth surface and looks and feels just like a physical touchpad. The touchpad on the Blade 14 is excellent for a Windows laptop, but it falls short of the MacBook’s.
The MacBook Pro 14 also excels in terms of connectivity. It has three USB-C connections, one of which supports Thunderbolt 4, an HDMI 2.0 port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and an SD card reader. Two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports (no Thunderbolt 4 support due to the AMD chipset), an HDMI 2.1 port, and a 3.5mm audio jack are available on the Blade 14. Unfortunately, there is no SD card reader accessible. Wireless communication is provided through Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 on both computers.
Razer Blade 14 vs. MacBook Pro 14: Performance
The Blade 14 uses AMD’s fast Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU, which has 8 cores and 16 threads and is one of the best processors for Windows computers. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU was paired with the Ryzen CPU in our review unit. The Blade 14 can be set up with an RTX 3080, an incredibly fast GPU in a small package. We tested the MacBook Pro 16 with an Apple M1 Pro with a 10-core CPU (eight performance cores and two efficiency cores) and a 16-core GPU, which is also available in the MacBook Pro 14, and both can be set up with up to an M1 Max with a 10-core CPU and a 32-core GPU. For this comparison, we’ll assume that the 14-inch MacBook Pro will be a little slower than the 16-inch version, but the performance scores will be close enough to draw some conclusions.
Cinebench R23 is a rendering test that uses a lot of CPU power. In single-core mode, the Blade 14 got a score of 1,434; in multi-core mode, it got a score of 11,226. For a Windows laptop, that’s a fast score. The M1 Pro and the MacBook Pro 16 got 1,531 and 12,343 points, respectively. Taking the MacBook Pro 14’s slight drop into account makes the two laptops about the same in this benchmark. But if you set up the MacBook Pro 14 with the M1 Max, it will be much faster.
The MacBook Pro 16 with the M1 Pro scored 956 on the real-world Pugetbench Premiere Pro benchmark, which runs in a live version of Adobe Premiere Pro, while the Blade 14 scored 537. Even if the MacBook Pro 14 is a little slower, that’s an impressive result. Premiere Pro can use discrete GPUs, and the RTX 3070 is faster than the integrated GPU in the M1 Pro.
The only place where the Blade 14 will perform better than other laptops is in games. Razer’s laptop is a solid choice if you want a laptop that’s fast for both creative work and gaming. But if you only want to make things, the MacBook Pro 14 will perform better overall. Razer released a Blade 14 with the new AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX CPU, which is likely to be much faster than the version we tested, but we don’t yet have benchmarks for that machine.
Razer Blade 14 vs. MacBook Pro 14: Display
The Blade 14 can have either a 14.0-inch Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) IPS panel running at 144Hz or a 14.0-inch QHD (2560 x 1440) IPS screen running at 165Hz. We looked at the second one, and it had a wide range of pretty accurate colors. It was 90 percent AdobeRGB and 100 percent sRGB, with an accuracy of DeltaE 1.54 (1.0 or less is considered excellent). Its brightness was only 315 nits, and its contrast was only 830:1. (we like to see 1,000:1 or more). It’s a great screen for gamers, especially since it has a fast refresh rate of 165Hz, but creators may not get the color accuracy and contrast they want.
The only display option for the MacBook Pro 14 is a 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display (mini-LED) with a resolution of 3024 x 1964 and a refresh rate of 120Hz. We’ll assume it has the same quality as the display on the bigger MacBook Pro 16, which uses the same technology. That screen had a brightness of 475 nits, covered 95 percent of AdobeRGB and 100 percent of sRGB with an accuracy of 1.04, and had a contrast ratio of 475,200:1 so that blacks were very dark.
The display on the MacBook Pro 14 is great for creators and anyone else who wants a bright, true-to-color screen with a lot of contrast. It also has a 16:10 aspect ratio, which is better for getting work done than the Razer 14’s 16:9 aspect ratio. Read more; HP New ZBook Mobile Workstations Target Creative
Razer Blade 14 vs MacBook Pro: Storage and Memory
Concerns about storage and memory are a significant departure for the two companies. One provides far more options than the other, but it is not the one that many people expect.
Apple’s M1 Pro models come standard with 16GB of Unified Memory, with upgrades to 32GB available. The M1 Max comes standard with 32GB of storage, with upgrades to 64GB available.
There is no upgrade available for Razer, as you are limited to a fixed 16GB of memory. DDR5-4000MHz memory is used in models powered by the Ryzen 9 6900HX, while DDR4-3200MHz memory is used in models powered by the Ryzen 9 5900HX.
Neither Apple nor Razer provide options for memory upgrades after purchase. Apple places memory directly on the SoC, whereas Razer solders it in place.
On the storage front, Apple offers 512GB as the starting point, with options up to 8TB available. In the Razer Blade 14, regardless of configuration, you’re limited to a 1TB NVMe SSD.
Unlike the memory, however, the drive in the Blade 14 can be replaced and upgraded to a 2TB model after purchase. The MacBook Pro lacks such an internal upgrade option, forcing users to rely on external expansion options.
Portability
The Blade 14 and MacBook Pro 14 are only a quarter of an inch apart in width and depth. The MacBook is 0.61 inches slimmer than the MacBook Pro and weighs 3.5 pounds instead of 3.92 pounds. Both laptops are tiny and light enough to carry around without hurting your back, yet they’re similar enough that you’d have trouble telling them apart.
However, battery life is a different story. In our web surfing test, which cycles through a range of popular and sophisticated websites, the Blade 14 lasted 8.25 hours, and 11 hours in our video test, which repeats a local Full HD Avengers trailer. For a Windows gaming laptop, those aren’t bad results. However, the MacBook Pro 14 will last much longer on a charge. In our online browsing test, the MacBook Pro 16 lasted 18.5 hours, and in our movie test, it lasted 23 hours. According to Apple, the 14-inch MacBook should get three hours less web browsing and four hours less video playback. In our online surfing test, the MacBook Pro 14 should last about 15 hours; in our movie test, it should last about 19 hours.
That’s nearly twice as long as the MacBook Pro 14. Apple’s machine has a lot of power and a long battery life, and the Blade 14 can’t keep up.
Razer Blade 14 vs 14-inch MacBook Pro: Graphics
Apple’s M1 family has a range of GPU core counts depending on the chip you choose. There is only a 14-core GPU available for the 8-core M1 Pro. The 14-core GPU and a 16-core option are available on the 10-core M1 Pro. The M1 Max comes standard with a 24-core GPU, with a 32-core GPU being an additional option.
The GPU gains more memory to work with when a user upgrades the RAM because it shares the same Unified Memory pool as the CPU. Razer offers five different GPU options along with the integrated graphics of each processor.
The cheapest option is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, which has 3,840 CUDA cores, second-generation ray tracing cores, third-generation Tensor cores, and 6GB of GDDR6 VRAM.
There are two 8GB GDDR6-capable RTX 3070 Laptop GPUs in use. The Ti has 5,888 CUDA cores, compared to 5,120 in the non-Ti version.
The GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU, available in both Ti and non-Ti versions, is top-of-the-line. The TI edition tops the list with 7,424 CUDA cores, while the non-TI edition has 6,144.
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti received a score of 66294 when batteries powered it. This is nothing compared to the 117588 it managed when plugged into a power source. However, the 14-core M1 Pro GPU could only manage a 37728.
Although Apple’s CPU and GPUs have many features tailored specifically for video editing, the gaming-oriented Razer Blade 14 outperformed Apple in this graphics test. Remember that we are contrasting the integrated GPU on the Ryzen M1 with a discrete GPU, but both Ryzen chips have integrated graphics for simpler tasks.
AMD refers to the “Radeon graphics” in the 5900HX as having a meager 8 cores and a low frequency of 2,100MHz. The “Radeon 680M” integrated graphics on the 6900Hx have 12 cores and a 2,400 MHz frequency.
It is difficult to compare the OpenCL results from GeekBench because neither integrated graphics option is listed by name. The Blade 14 doesn’t really benefit from integrated graphics, which are typically disappointing.
The Razer Blade 14 and the 14-inch MacBook Pro both have active cooling, allowing them to operate at high-performance levels for longer periods of time before thermal throttling kicks in. In the case of the Razer Blade 14, Razer refers to its thermal management as “Vapor Chamber Liquid Cooling,” which combines internal liquid cooling techniques with fans in the base to push warm exhaust air out the back.
Where to buy
AppleInsider
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Apple’s 14-inch MacBook Pro also starts at $1,999, exclusive deals are available on nearly every model in our 14-inch MacBook Pro Price Guide.
With promo code APINSIDER and this cost-saving activation link, AppleInsider readers can save up to $300 instantly.
The MacBook Pro 14 is the better all-around laptop
The Razer Blade 14 starts at $2,000 for a Ryzen 9 6900HX processor, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, and a 14-inch Full HD 144Hz display. A Ryzen 9 6900HX with 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, an RTX 3080 Ti, and a 14-inch QHD 165Hz display would set you back $3,500. By no means is this a low-cost laptop. Read also; Surface Pro X 2: What We’re Hoping For
The MacBook Pro 14 costs $1,999 and comes with an 8-core CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. A 10-core CPU/32-core GPU M1 Max, 64GB of RAM, and a massive 8TB SSD can cost as much as $5,899 on Amazon. The MacBook Pro 14 is available in a variety of configurations, from basic to extremely expensive.
The Razer Blade 14 is a terrific alternative if you’re a gamer looking for a speedy laptop for work and creativity. The MacBook Pro 14 delivers better all-around performance, exceptional battery life, and a significantly better display, making it the overall victor for most users, particularly designers.
